Clearly, someone had a bright idea

Nov 8, 2011 by Joshua    No Comments    Posted under: grab bag

The other day, I had a great idea that absolutely had to be expressed t0 the world in a message consisting of no more than 140 characters. Fortunately for me, someone invented Twitter!

I can’t tell you how many times I though up some wonderful idea or worked out a catchy lead for a blog article while showering, only to forget it once I am dry and clothed. Few things are more frustrating than trying to remember something word-for-word but not being able to get it just right.

Sure, I live alone and keep my windows covered, so nobody would likely see me running naked and dripping wet out of the bathroom to find a notepad and a pen, but really, it’s the principle of the thing.

So, I tackled the problem by trying to come up with some work-around. I rent, and my landlady probably wouldn’t be too happy about me cutting into the shower wall and mounting a touchpad in there, so that option is out. It’d probably be too expensive, anyway. Maybe I could get one of those magnetic doodle boards for kids, though it’d be rather lo-fi.

It wasn’t until a week or so after my tweets that I saw I had a new follower on Twitter:

Go figure that I’m not the only one to ever consider a solution to this problem. Turns out these guys market a product specifically designed to address the issue of fleeting shower thoughts.

For 7 bucks, you get a notepad with 40 sheets and pencil, as well as suction cups to keep both stuck to the side of your shower stall. They also sell extra pencils and suction cups, as well as “Aqua LoveNotes”, which are just like the regular AquaNotes but with two pencils – for leaving love notes in the shower, I suppose.

Anyway, the important question is, of course, whether or not they work. Lucky for you that I bought a pack.

I’ve had a pad of AquaNotes hanging up in my shower for about a week now, and it’s holding strong. Aside from the waterproofiness, the materials work just the same as the regular sort. The pencil smells of graphite, and the eraser leaves just enough residue that you can kind of make out what was written there.

The edges of the paper are a bit soaked at times, but it dries out well enough. Unlike regular paper, it does not lose its integrity or rip when wet. I even sprayed water directly at it with the shower head, with no apparent effect. All in all, it delivers on its promise while appealing to a certain nostalgic love of mine for the analogue.

That said, the design could use a few improvements. A pencil sharpener would be nice, for instance, though I suppose a regular one would work just as well (as long as the blades don’t rust). I would have also liked a place to store notes that I’ve ripped off, but as the above picture shows, they can be wedged in the top of the pad. Then again, I suppose the point of writing notes is so that you can take them with you and pull them out when you need them.

Inspiration hasn’t struck me too often since I bought the pad, so I’ve only used a few sheets of it so far. Regardless, I imagine this one will last me quite a while, and its usefulness so far has me convinced that I will likely buy another pad once this one does run out.

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